Look to middle everything even at the nets: Kohli to Richards – 3 min read

North Sound (Antigua): The old adage goes that winners don’t do different things, they do things differently. And it has once again come to the fore as India captain Virat Kohli and West Indies legend Viv Richards have revealed in their recent chat on BCCI.TV that while Kohli feel claustrophobic at the nets, the same problem was also faced by Richards during his playing days.

In the second part of their conversation, Kohli spoke about how he goes into the nets thinking that the is going to stand up against his own bowlers, “not even get anything on the edge and middle everything” before asking if Richards had the same attitude.

“It’s the same thinking for me. You go and try to eliminate the process of getting out,” said the former West Indies captain. “But the nets was very claustrophobic for me, I was never comfortable in it.”

Kohli said that he feels exactly the same way. “I prefer having an open centre-wicket net against our bowlers with fielders so that I have a match simulation,” said the 30-year-old.

Kohli also spoke about how Richards served as an inspiration for him to perform the way he did in India’s 2014 tour of Australia. In fact, that tour kind of showed what the future holds for the India captain.

The tour came after a disastrous tour of England for India and Kohli. The run-machine scored just 134 runs in 10 innings and was completely exposed against the swinging ball outside the off-stump. In Australia, though, Kohli turned it around emphatically, smashing 692 in 8 innings at a mind-numbing average of 86.50. It was bettered only by a stellar Steve Smith, who scored 769 at an average of 128.16.

“Three months before going to Australia I was visualising that I would take on these bowlers and I would dominate and that was a big help for me,” said Kohli. Richards said that he was in Australia at the time doing commentary for the Big Bash and was impressed by the fact that Kohli gave back to the Australians’ sledging tactics.

“The Australians can be in my opinion, bullies at times. They try talking you out, you gave it back. I loved that and you gave it back with interest the way you performed,” said Richards.

Kohli also spoke about how his wife Anushka Sharma has been a huge inspiration for him and has helped him in this journey not just on the field, but also off it.